A visit to my son in Portland Oregon for summer vacation

By SJ Otto

I had a fine trip visiting my son Ethan, in Portland Oregon. It is a long plane ride, but much better than trying to drive there. We flew from Wichita to Texas and then to Portland.

My son now lives with his girl friend Ce Ce Williams, and her son Dru, in a modest house that they rent. This was the first time my wife Cam Gentry and I got to meet Ce Ce. We found her a pleasant person and she was a fine hostess. My son seems to like her a lot and we were happy to meet her.

Our first day in Oregon we went to the Timberline lodge. We ate in the Timberline Bar. The whole building is fascinating and it was built by the WPA in the President FD Roosevelt days. Outside was Mount Hood. I it is about the highest mountain in the state. The outside of this lodge was used to make the movie "The Shining".

In Terry's back yard.

Here we are eating lunch at the Timberline Bar. 

That evening we saw Ethan playing with his band Libido Cornucopia. They were playing at the Alberta Street Pub. I drank plenty of their tall boy beers which were on sale for $3. The band plays mostly a form of punk rock, which is my kind of music. It was a small audience, but the band has a large following.

The next day we went to the beach. Portland is about an hours ride to the Pacific. 

On the way we visited Fort Stevens. The Fort was mostly used for defending the Pacific Coast from attacks by Japan, during World War II. It is mostly just empty buildings today, with some cannons and a jeep fixed up for display. Most of the fort is still there although much of it is not open to the public. I read in the museum that a Japanese submarine actually fired at the fort, during the war. They didn't hit anything and the sub commander said he would not have fired at the coast if he new there were all those cannons lined up just waiting to sink him.

On one of the days we were there we all visited my brother Terry, his wife Barb, and his son Jeff. Terry lives in Sandy, Oregon, which is about an hours drive from Portland. Terry writes a column for The Columbian. He also works for the Forest Service-Zigzag Ranger District in Zigzag, Oregon.

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We saw a lot of Portland, such as Powell's Books, a really big book store that doesn't carry any of my books. Cam and I also hung out on Hawthorne Ave, in Portland, with Barb. That street seemed somewhat of a bohemian area — kind of hippy like.

Here is Cam and I at Hawthorne Ave. 

Here is a picture of Ethan and Ce Ce.

So that was our trip. I took plenty of photos to remember it.